Hartford schools chief operating officer placed on leave

Jose Colon-Rivas, the chief operating officer for Hartford Public Schools, has been placed on administrative leave.

Few details were released. School spokesman John N. Fergus said Colon-Rivas was placed on leave effective Feb. 20 “pending the outcome of an administrative investigation.”

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Before becoming a city administrator in 2005, Colon-Rivas had been a longtime educator, teaching in his native Puerto Rico in the 1980s and later in Hartford after receiving his Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, with a specialty in childhood development and educational psychology, from Penn State University. He served stints as Bulkeley’s assistant principal, principal of Hartford Public High School during the school’s accreditation, and as a senior director in the district. He became chief operating officer in 2016.